Method of forming hooked or throated needles.



J. M. MERROW.

METHOD OF FORMING HOOKED 0R THROATED NEEDLES.

' APPLIOATION FILED AUG. 11, 1911.

1,072,);82, Patented Sept. 9, 1913.

FT E.

VVITNBSSE2S INVENTDR;

{4 BY W yflwk COLUMBIA PLANOQRAPM COHWASHINOTON. n. c.

JOSEPH M. MERROW, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

METHOD OF FORMING HOOKEI) OR THROATED NEEDLES.

specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 9, 19.1.3.

Application filed August 11, 1911. Serial No. 643,587.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Josnri'r M. Mnunow, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of ltlartford, county of Hartford, State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Method of Forming llooked or 'lhroated Needles, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof, and to the figures and letters of reference marked thereon.

This invention is a method of forming and producing hooked or throated needles, particularly adaptable and useful in the commercial manufacture of latched crochet needles such as are suitable for use in the well known Merrow crochet machines. By this process an arrow head of peculiar form is formed upon the end of a blank which is afterward bent into the form of a hook as will be explained.

A hooked needle formed the subject of United States Patent No. 415,310; issued to me November 19, 1880; but the hooked needle described in that patent, while adapted for similar use, is not identical with that produced by the process herein described and it is produced by a process of milling and filing quite foreign to the process of the present invention.

The hooked needles produced by the herein described process are for most purposes equivalent to the patented hooked needle above mentioned, but can be made with much greater facility and uniformity.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is an elevation of a portion of a rod upon which an arrow head is to be formed. Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 2-2, of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an elevation showing the condition of the rod after one of the forming operations. Fig. t is a cross sectional view taken upon the line 4-1, of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 shows in plan the condition of the rod after the spreading operation. F ig. (3 is a cross sectional view taken 011 the line 66, of the Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the rod flattened or spread with its point concentric with its shank. Fig. 8 is a view similar to the Fig. 7 showing one of the flattened surfaces set back in line with the shank. Fig. 9 is a plan view showing the arrow head bent into hook form. Fig. 10 is a side elevation of the same.

Like letters of reference in the several figures indicate the same parts.

The end of the rod A is formed into a tapering neck B and a pointed head C by any convenient known means, but in practiro it has been found most desirable to employ a process of swaging which leaves the blank very smooth and produces no sprues or burs. When the head (his to be made smaller than the diameter of the rod or shank, it has been found advantageous to reduce the end of the rod to approximatoly the size of the head C by swaging, and afterward to reduce the neck 13 to a suitable size and taper, at the same time reducing the head (I to approximately the form of a cone, also by si'aging, thus leaving the whole end of the rod smooth and free from sprues or burs. The blank will then be in practically the form shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Then the blank is spread or flattened, preterably by pressing or striking it between suitable dies that will not confine the lateral flow of the metal, thus producing what is called the arrow head which preferably has rounded shoulders as at I) D, and filleted corners as at D l) with the edges of the flattened portions rounded as shown in Fig. 6. It will also be understood that the edges of the shoulders D 2 as well as the edges of the arrow head as a whole are naturally rounded by the spreading or flattening, since. the sides or edges are not con- [ined while being flattened. In pressing or flattening the blanks the faces are made to converge, and if the faces are at equal angles to the longitudinal axis of the rod, the point C of the blank will naturally remain substantially in line with the axis of the rod or shank A, as shown in Fig. 7. The blank may afterward be set back so that one of the flattened surfaces is brought into line with the corresponding side of the shank A, as shown in Fig. 8. If, however, a set back blank is desired from the start, the step shown in Fig. 7 may be eliminated by the use of suitable dies, and the blank shown in Fig. 8 produced directly from the blank shown in Fig. 3. After the blank is properly spread by being flattened and tapered to produce the arrow head, the head is preferably bent back toward the shank in a plane perpendicular to the plane of its flat faces to form the throat or hook as shown in Figs. 9 and 10. When the hook has been formed the shoulders D D being more pronounced than the neck of the hook cause a loop of thread when carried by the hook to be diverted backward from the open side of the hook on to the neck of the hook, when used in a crochet machine as will be fully understood by those acquainted with crochet machinery.

The usual hinged latch as shown in the patent hereinbefore referred to, or any other suitable known form of latch or loop shedding device, may be applied to the described crochet hook, and any needed slots, grooves, holes or shaping of the neck or shank that may be connected with the insertion of a latch or the formation ofthe shank, may be made or done at any suitable stage in the process of making the hooks.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. The method herein described of forming hooked or throated needles, consisting in forming a blank with a substantially conical head, upon one end of a rod, flattening the said head into a taper with one of its flattened faces set back in a line parallel and coincident with the corresponding side of the rod or shank, and bending this blank 4 into a hook.

2. The method of forming hooked needles which consists in forming a tapering neck and a pointed conical head on one end of a rod or hook shank, then spreading the said neck and head to form an arrow headed end with converging faces, and bending the end back to form a hooked needle.

3. The method of forming hooked needles which consists in forming on the end of a wire or rod, a conical head and a tapering neck of circular cross section and concentric with the rod on which it is formed, then flattening the head and neck to form a pointed arrow head with converging faces and laterally extending shoulders on opposite edges, and finally bending this head back toward the shank in a plane perpendicular to the plane of its flat faces to form a hooked needle.

4. The method of making hooked or throated needles which consists in causing the metal in one end of a rod or hook shank to flow into a head and neck of suitable size and contour, concentric with the rod or shank and of circular cross section, then spreading the head and neck laterally by means of pressure applied to opposite sides of the said head and neck without confining the metal to limit its lateral flow, and then forming the neck and head into a hook throat or bend.

5. The process of making crochet needles with loop deflecting hooks, consisting in swaging the end of the needle rod into a conical neck with its smaller end merging into the base of a pointed conical head, then spreading the head and neck between suitable dies that will not confine the lateral flow of the metal and form faces that converge toward the point of the head, thereby forming the conical head and neck into a pointed head with converging faces and oppositely disposed loop deflecting shoulders on the edges between said faces, and finally bending the end back to form a crochet needle.

6. The method herein described of making hooked or throated needles, consisting in heading and necking the end of a rod or hook shank and then forming this head and neck between suitable dies to produce a blank having a head, with two oppositely disposed laterally extending shoulders and a pointed end to which all the sides converge, and a neck, and finally bending the headed end of this blank into a hook.

JOSEPH M. MERROVV.

Witnesses ARTHUR B. JENKINS, EVA L. S'roUeH'roNf Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

